A Sailor of King George

📖 The Scoop

A Sailor of King George.The Journals of Captain Frederick Hoffman, R.N. 1793-1814.Edited by a. Beckford Bevan and H.B. Wolryche-Whitmore.In a memorial presented in 1835 to the Lords of the Admiralty, the author of the journals which form this volume details his various services. He joined the Navy in October, 1793, his first ship being H.M.S. Blonde. He was present at the siege of Martinique in 1794, and returned to England the same year in H.M.S. Hannibal with despatches and the colours of Martinique. For a few months the ship was attached to the Channel Fleet, and then suddenly, in 1795, was ordered to the West Indies again. Here he remained until 1802, during which period he was twice attacked by yellow fever. The author was engaged in upwards of eighteen boat actions, in one of which, at Tiberoon Bay, St. Domingo, he was wounded in the head, and entirely lost the hearing of his left ear. As first lieutenant of H.M.S. Volage, while attempting to cut out an enemy's vessel laden with tobacco from under the guns of the Moro Castle, St. Jago de Cuba, after a running fight of two hours with three Spanish privateers, he was obliged to surrender, and was carried prisoner to St. Jago, where he remained for six weeks until exchanged. In 1802 he returned to England in the Volage, which was then paid off.

Genre: History / Military / Naval (fancy, right?)